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Longview CTE director outlines enrollment‑based funding, equipment upgrades and push for more coding and dual credit
Summary
CTE director Bill Austin told the board about enrollment‑linked funding (about $277,000 for high school enhancement last year and $84,000 from Perkins), recent equipment purchases (labs, simulators, $80,000 anatomy table), and priorities including dual‑credit expansion, healthcare aide and early‑childhood classes, and stronger middle‑school coding and robotics.
Bill Austin, Longview’s director of career and technical education, told the board Sept. 8 that CTE funding and program decisions are driven by student enrollment and that recent purchases and program growth aim to align student skills with local industry needs.
“All of our funding is based on our enrollment,” Austin said, explaining the district’s CTE finance mix. He told the board last year’s high school enhancement funding totaled about $277,000 and that the district received roughly $84,000 from the Carl D. Perkins grant, which Austin said he typically uses for supplies.
Austin described specific equipment investments across program areas: a modernized photo lab, updated RA Long Career Center resources, greenhouse sensors and control units in agriculture, and an anatomy simulation table in health sciences (he said the table cost about $80,000 and was purchased four to five years earlier and has recently been augmented with tablets). He also described CNC machines, 3‑D printers, forklift simulators and welding and plasma tables used in skilled and technical programs.
On dual credit and articulation, Austin said some CTE classes currently articulate with Lower Columbia College, including three marketing classes and a Microsoft IT Academy course offering up to 14 credits through industry certificates. He said culinary articulation is a challenge because the local community college lacks a culinary program; he is looking at Clark College for potential partnerships.
Austin listed near‑term program development priorities: launching a healthcare aide course (state approval in place pending instructor recruitment), expanding early childhood education offerings (also approved at the state zip code level but lacking an instructor), growing middle‑school STEM and robotics enrollment, strengthening coding and computer science pathways, and improving CTE program sequencing so students can move from middle school through high school to postsecondary training or employment.
Board members asked about advisory committees, industry partnerships, and whether CTSOs (student career and technical organizations) were supported. Austin said advisory committees made up of industry representatives guide program decisions and that partnerships with local businesses and colleges were ongoing.
Austin said the district’s CTE program is dependent on hiring the right staff and on enrollment funding; he requested continued flexibility in budget treatment as state and federal funding rules shift.
Next procedural steps: Austin will return with updated enrollment numbers after the January apportionment; the board may request a fuller annual CTE report at a future meeting.
